How to Get Inspired to Play Guitar Again
Picking upward the guitar after a long hiatus is like getting back in shape after you lot haven't worked out in months. This is specially truthful if you'd been pretty serious earlier, because the difference in your ability might be painful. "I tin can't believe this is and then difficult!" you'll call back at first. "I would be amazing right now if I'd stuck with it!"
Then how do you get back into playing guitar without getting discouraged?
ane. Make peace with the gap.
People stop playing music for all kinds of reasons, just in a lot of cases, it wasn't actually intentional. They didn't quit on purpose — they just woke up one mean solar day and realized that they hadn't picked up their instrument in months or years.
It could be that your ring bankrupt upwardly under less-than-ideal circumstances and the idea of continuing to play was non appealing for a while. It could be that your work, academic, or family commitments got in the style. It could be that you had to take a pause from playing while yous recovered from some kind of injury.Regardless of why you stopped playing, there's no reason to mourn the fourth dimension y'all've lost. Don't hold onto the regret. Treating the intermission like some kind of moral failing won't make you a meliorate player, and it could actually hold you back. Whatever the circumstances were, let them go and brand a fresh first.
two. Get a guitar if you don't have one anymore.
Obviously, y'all're going to need something to play. If you don't own a guitar anymore, get ane. You don't have to spend a fortune — merely brand certain that any you lot get is proficient quality. Check out my tips for finding a nifty guitar at a yard sale!
Get buy a guitar while yous're still fired up most playing. You don't want to spend too much fourth dimension researching guitar models, considering yous could risk losing momentum — or going bankrupt on new gear. Returning players tin can easily succumb to Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS) if they're not careful, then just focus on what a beginner needs to get started. One time you lot've got that, y'all can focus on rebuilding your gear empire.
Get that guitar out of the attic and back in your easily!
Whether you still have a guitar kick effectually or you've just bought ane, take it to a qualified luthier for a fresh set-upwardly. That will make sure your guitar is comfortable to play and free from annoying problems like high action and sharp frets — both of which tin can make getting dorsum into playing shape more painful than information technology needs to be. Nothing volition brand you give up once again like pain!
3. Make fourth dimension to practice.
Other priorities will always compete for your time, whether it's kids, work responsibilities, or only piles of stupid laundry! It's very easy to proceed telling yourself you'll commencement playing once more for real next calendar week.
If you lot're serious about your return to playing, yous have to carve out fourth dimension to practice. There'south no way around that. We're not in The Matrix and you can't become a kung fu main in an instant (although let's exist honest — that would be sweet!).
You oasis't been playing guitar, so you've been using your 24 hours each solar day for other things. To fit guitar into your life again, something has to shift.
Peradventure you tin go upwardly a little early and play guitar quietly while the residual of the household is comatose. That could be a overnice, peaceful way to start your day (or an aggressive fashion, depending on the kind of music you play). Maybe you're non a morning person, merely you lot're in the habit of scrolling through social media for half an hour before bed. That is the one-half an hour that could definitely exist better spent re-learning guitar.
You tin can also detect ways to fit playing guitar around your other obligations. For case, y'all could play your acoustic while watching the kids run around the thousand. Getting back to that stupid pile of laundry, you can play while y'all're waiting for a load of laundry to finish! It doesn't affair when you practise as long as practice is happening on a consistent basis.
One of our songwriting panelists fits playing into his day by always having a guitar available at work. When his lunch break hits, he jumps in the car and drives a mile or ii downwards the route to a field and gets in some practice. If this works for yous, just exist sure not to get out the guitar in the car during the workday or overnight. Extreme changes in temperature and humidity can cause catastrophic problems for guitars.
Here's a footling fox that helps defeat procrastination: Leave your guitar out on a stand up somewhere y'all volition see it often, instead of buried in some cupboard. Make information technology as piece of cake equally possible to pick upwards that guitar and practice.
(In other posts I've brash against leaving guitars in the stand for climate control and rubber reasons, merely I think this is a great time to make an exception. What'southward important correct now is getting you playing again.)
iv. Take advantage of muscle memory.
It might feel like you're starting over from scratch, just you're not — playing guitar involves a lot of muscle memory. Your fingers haven't forgotten how to play. You may be surprised how fast the chord movements come back to you lot.
Unless y'all have a job or some other hobby that involves a lot of fine motor work with your hands, your fingers will probably be weak for a little while. Just keep at information technology. Even if you're just playing scales, that work will help you build up the calluses and the finger strength that you've lost.
As I said in the post about practicing quietly, my great-grandad was a classical pianist, and one of the things he used to do was practise on his "silent pianoforte." This story inspired one of the tricks I use when I've gotten into a non-playing oestrus and I demand to build my calluses back up. I'll have a guitar in my hands when I'm watching TV. I'g not actually playing, but I'm practicing changing chord shapes and running my fingers up and downward the strings.
5. Play some songs you lot used to dear playing.
Playing familiar songs will rebuild your confidence and remind you lot why you love playing guitar.
If you used to write your own songs, your own tunes are a bang-up way to reconnect with your instrument. I always find that my own songs come up back to me faster than the tunes I used to cover.
But go easy on yourself and cull relatively unproblematic, accessible songs. If y'all used to be able to play Rush'southward entire catalog, that'due south crawly — merely now is non the time to try to bust out "La Villa Strangiato." Otherwise you could end up feeling defeated, and that's not the betoken. This is supposed to be fun, remember?
Those of united states who cut our teeth on Ramones or Nirvana accept an advantage here in that the material is relatively easy to play. It's the attitude with which you play it that makes the song audio harder, and I observe that attitude unremarkably comes back faster than finger strength.
6. Learn some new songs.
You might find that the old songs you lot used to play have gotten dried. Perchance they bring upward bad memories of past relationships, or you but you lot don't connect with them in the aforementioned way anymore.
Information technology's too likely that your taste in music has changed in the interim. Playing those Glimmer-182 and Barenaked Ladies tunes was fun in 1998, but you lot need some new textile!
Learning new songs tin can bring fresh energy, and that tin can be really helpful. You might even discover that techniques that you struggled to master years ago just click at present, because you're approaching the task with a dissimilar mindset.
Since you're going to confront a bit of a learning curve for the foreseeable time to come, this could exist a great time to consider trying to play less mutual styles of guitar, like slide or Dobro.
7. Consider getting a teacher.
A good guitar teacher tin can assess your skills and help you lot make full in the gaps then you can get back to where you were (and beyond!) in an organized and efficient way. The teacher can besides correct whatever weaknesses in your technique and then you lot're not "remembering" how to play the wrong manner.
In addition, you may find that the structure of taking lessons and having homework to practice is helpful. Deadlines and accountability practise wonders for productivity!
If you lot're not going to become an in-person guitar teacher, check out online resources like Justin Guitar.
8. Find ways to bring music and musicians dorsum into your life.
If yous stopped playing guitar considering "life got in the fashion," it'due south very likely that y'all besides stopped going to meet live music on a regular basis. Yous demand to fix that!
Go see some live music. Bank check out a local bar that'due south known for live music, or detect an open mic at a coffee shop. It doesn't take to be fancy or expensive, but I hope information technology will be energizing.
If you lot actually like the idea of playing in a group, that tin can be a fantastic way to keep learning and growing as a musician. But give yourself some time to rebuild your skills and your confidence before you go looking for people to jam with.
Don't forget that you can notwithstanding get inspired by musicians y'all're never going to see live. I really dear reading biographies of music legends and watching rock documentaries. I find that they e'er make me desire to pick up a guitar.
9. Don't overdo it. Go on your goals manageable, and log your progress.
Making yourself play guitar for three hours a day when you lot're used to playing zero hours a twenty-four hour period is a doomed strategy. Don't try to exhaust yourself into proficiency similar some sadistic drill sergeant — it'due south not going to work, and you lot could hurt yourself.
You're better off practicing for smaller chunks of time when you can really focus on what you're doing. Promise yourself that you'll play for a brusque, defined corporeality of time every 24-hour interval (say, ten minutes). If you get to the stop of those x minutes and you're excited to proceed playing, great! Consider that bonus time.
Some returning players observe that they accept more focus and subject field now than they did when they played guitar every bit teenagers. One way to aqueduct that focus is to proceed a do diary. Months from at present, you tin can flip through that record and see how far you lot've come.
Speaking of which, there's a 100% chance (due to the nature of the space-time continuum) that you are older than you were when you used to play. That means that y'all're likely to become things like sore wrists that you lot didn't before. Y'all'll likely have some day-after soreness for the offset couple of weeks.
Be certain to go easy, have some ibuprofen and ice handy, and keep your risk of tendonitis low by doing some finger stretches. Always finish playing earlier you feel actual pain. For boosted tips that may be relevant, check out the postal service well-nigh playing guitar with arthritis.
10. Call back about what yous similar about playing guitar, and why you desire to stick with it this time.
When re-learning to play starts to experience frustrating and deadening — and it will, at some bespeak! — think about what drew y'all dorsum to this hobby. What were yous missing?
For me, what keeps me playing when I restart is the ritual of it all. I actually like getting my gear out, cleaning information technology upward, changing strings, and maybe redoing my pedal board. I get reminded of when I was in a band and how much fun information technology was.
Then hopefully I've inspired yous to leave of the heat and return to playing for practiced this fourth dimension. When you're support and running, be certain to check out the recommended gear page. I won't steer you wrong!
Source: https://www.sweetguitartones.com/getting-back-into-guitar/
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